Changing the Way Our Clothes Are Shipped to Reduce Our Carbon Footprint

Several months back, Vogue Magazine published several ways consumers can shop more sustainably for clothes and other items to reduce their carbon footprint. They put some good ideas out there to respond to some jarring facts about the apparel industry.

For example, consumers throw nearly 2.5 billion pounds of clothes away each year, which end up in landfills. In addition, clothes makers are producing more than 150 billion pounds of clothes every year. Articles like this reinforce the idea that both consumers and retailers must do more to reduce waste through thoughtful buying decisions and optimized logistics.

One area that many retailers can improve their sustainability efforts is through customized On Demand Packaging®.

How Does Packaging Come into Play with Sustainable Shopping?

As consumers become more aware of sustainability issues through articles like those in Vogue, they will be more focused on shopping from retailers that practice green methods to reduce their carbon footprint. Did you know that one of the more wasteful aspects of retail is how products are shipped?

There’s no question that more people are shopping online for most of their goods than ever before. It’s easy, convenient, and can be done anywhere. However, all of those goods purchased online must be shipped, and this is where businesses can do more to improve waste. When items are shipped conventionally, they are often shipped in boxes that are much bigger. In fact, as much as 40% of the contents in the average box is empty space. That means that much more paper is used for essentially no reason.

Just think about the last time you received a package from a retailer. Did you have to dig through a substantial amount of packaging material just to find what you paid for? This is because the retailer used a box that wasn’t customized to the size of the items. This is only one concern. Sometimes shipped goods are delivered damaged. If your order was damaged, this could have been due to the size of the box because the item had more space to be jostled around. Customized packaging solutions could help eliminate these quality issues while mitigating waste at the same time.

On Demand Packaging® solutions allow businesses to customize their boxes, so they use the right-sized corrugated cardboard box to ship their goods. This means less material, less filler, and less of a global impact. It’s a win-win, and a good selling point when showing customers what you’re doing to be an active sustainability player. For more information about our sustainable packaging solutions, please contact us today at 1-801-944-4814.